The wire feed tips to which the present disclosure relates are those used in fabrication processes such as welding and, to a lesser extent brazing and soldering. Such processes usually employ a filler or joining material, typically in the form of a consumable metal wire that may be held within the wire feed tip and directed towards the work pieces to be joined. Since those wire feed tips are most commonly used in welding processes, such as for example gas metal arc welding (GMAW), the following description will relate specifically to welding, though it should be borne in mind that the present disclosure is in no way limited to such processes.
Briefly, unlike brazing and soldering, welding requires the surfaces of the work pieces to be melted and a filler material to be introduced to create a molten pool of material that may eventually cool to form a solid joint. The surfaces of the work pieces may be melted by the heat generated from a flame, an electric arc, laser or several other energy sources.
Referring again to GMAW, this technique uses an electric arc to generate heat and usually employs a welding gun connected to a spool of wire and a supply of inert gas. The welding gun includes the wire feed tip (also known as a welding tip) which may be an elongate unit made from copper (or other suitable material) and has a bore extending therethrough to accommodate the wire from the spool. Wire feed tips are commonly available in a range of sizes and styles so as to suit the size of the wire to be dispensed therefrom, which typically has a diameter in the range of 0.7 mm to 2.4 mm and for some applications as large as 4 mm. Further, the means by which the wire feed tip connects to the gun may also vary, but quite commonly it comprises a threaded portion at the rear which engages a threaded opening on the welding gun. The welding gun also includes a gas nozzle adjacent the wire feed tip and a welding shield that surrounds the gas nozzle and the wire feed tip so as to direct the gas towards the end of the wire and thus the work piece being welded.
Occasionally and particularly when the welding gun is too closely positioned to the work piece, weld splatter may adhere to the wire feed tip or the end of the wire may become so hot that it welds itself to the wire feed tip. These scenarios are particularly problematic since they may restrict or even prevent wire being dispensed from the wire feed tip. To address these problems, it is common to remove the welding shield and detach the wire feed tip from the welding gun so that it may be replaced or refurbished. Refurbishment usually includes grinding the end of the tip so as to remove the portion coated in weld splatter and thus reveal a new end with a clean bore. This process obviously reduces the length of the tip so can be carried out only a limited number of times before the tip becomes unusable.
It is a principal object of the present disclosure to overcome the problems outlined above.